Steering apparatus for btavigable vessels



INVENTOR! WITNES SES:

AFHER, WASHINGTON. D C,

ROSS VVINANS AND THOMAS \VINANS, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

STEERING APPARATUS FOR NAVIGABLE VESSELS.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 31,845, dated March 26, 1861.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, Boss VINANS and THOMAS VVINANS, of the city of Baltimore and State of Maryland, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Means of Steering Spindle Bottomed Vessels, and that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of our said invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, in wh1ch- Figure 1 represents a longitudinal section of a spindle formed vessel with our invention applied thereto, Fig. 2 represents a horizontal section of the same at the line a; of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 represents a cross section thereof at one of the rudder shafts.

The object of our invention is to enable vessels whose bottoms have a spindle form, or nearly a spindle form, to be steered with facility and without causing the material rolling of the vessel by the action of the rudder. In such vessels rudders can not be applied without difficulty at the extreme end, as the latter being pointed does not ofitself afford sufficient space for the fastenings of the rudder; hence it becomes expedient to locate the rudder beneath the bottom and at some point between the extreme end and the center of the vessel. When a rudder is applied in this position the pressure of the water against it, when the vessel is in motion and the rudder is inclined to alter her course, tends to cause the vessel to heel; and in a vessel having sub stantially a spindle-formed bottom this tendency, being unresisted by the form of the vessel, produces considerable effect. Our invention is designed to counteract the heeling, and at the same time to obviate the difficulty incidental to the location of the rudder at the extreme end of a vessel having a spindle-forined bottom; and to this end our invention consists in employing two rudders, which are located beneath the bottom of the vessel at opposite sides of the longitudinal center thereof, and between the center and the extreme ends, and are combined with each other and with the vessel in such manner that the movement of one rudder is attended by a simultaneous opposite movement of the other, and that the tendency of one rudder to cause the vessel to roll or heel in one direction is counteracted in whole or in part by the tendency of the other to cause the vessel to roll in the opposite direction.

The accompanying drawing represents the best mode with which we are acquainted of carrying our invention into effect. In this example the rudders, A and A, are located at opposite sides of the center 0 of the spindle formed vessel B, at points intermediate between the center c and the extreme ends 6, a. Each rudder is formed of a rudder blade secured to the lower end of a shaft, cl, which extends upward into the hull of the vessel through a pipe or tubular rudder case f secured thereto. The upper end of each rudder case isfitted with a stufling box, 9, by which the leakage of water into the vessel is prevented; or the pipes may be continued sufficiently above the water line for this purpose. The rudder blades in the example represented in the drawing are secured to the shaft in such manner that the half of each blade projects from the shaft toward the adjacent end of the hull, and the other half toward the center of the hull, so that the forces which resist the turning of the rudder are balanced. The upper ends of the two rudder shafts are fitted with cross heads or yokes i, firmly secured thereto; and each end of each yoke is connected with the opposite end of the other yoke by means of a rod 71, so that the turning of one rudder in one direction is attended with the si1nultaneous turning of the other rudder a corresponding distance in the opposite direction, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2. Hence it follows that if the rudders be turned obliquely to the axis of the vessel when the vessel in is motion, the pressure of the water against the inclined blade of the one rudder (A for example) to roll the vessel in one direction, as indicated by the arrow in Fig. 3, will be counteracted by the pressure of the water against the inclined blade of the other rudder tending to roll the vessel in the opposite direction. Moreover two rudders located at opposite sides of the center of the vessel and connected as above described cause the vessel to turn to the right or to the left much more rapidly than when a single rudder is employed. In order to steer the vessel, one of the rudder shafts, or the connection between the two, must be fitted with a tiller or other steering mechanism, by means of which it can be moved with facility.

Having thus described apractical application of our invention, it is proper to state that it is notconfined to balanced rudders nor to the particular means of combining low the bottom thereof at opposite sides of the two rudders which We have described; the longitudinal center, and mechanism to as rudders partly balanced, or Wholly unimpart opposite movements to the rudders balanced, may be employed, and any combinsubstantially as described. 7 l5 ing mechanism may be used that Will cause In testimony whereof W6 have hereunto the rudder blades to turn simultaneously in subscribed our names. opposite directions. ROSS WVINANS.

What We claim as our invention and desire THOMAS WINANS. to secure by Letters Patent is- The combination of a vessel having a spindle formed bottom, tWo rudders located be- Witnesses:

G. BECKENBAUGI-I, W. S. VVILKINsoN. 

